


with smiles on our faces (we do it in the dark)

by growlery writes (growlery)



Series: nwhl avs [1]
Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Alternate Universe - NWHL Players, Casual Sex, Ensemble Cast, Everyone is Queer, F/F, Karaoke, Multi, Open Relationships, Polyamory, Ridiculousness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-07
Updated: 2019-04-07
Packaged: 2019-11-13 04:46:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18024965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/growlery/pseuds/growlery%20writes
Summary: It’s karaoke night at Denver’s best and only lesbian bar when they all pile in after their big win over the Beauts, and Tyson lights up.“Dude, yes,” she says, grinning at Landy, who’d been the one to insist on the team coming out here.“Dude, no,” groans Tyson Senior, bright red already. “Any Celine Dion jokes and I’m out of here, I’m not even kidding.”





	with smiles on our faces (we do it in the dark)

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by [racheesi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/racheesi/pseuds/racheesi) in the [wesmashing](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/wesmashing) collection. 



> > Colorado Avalanche as an NWHL team AU (all the players are women), dealing with the stuff that NWHL players deal with (like their jobs during the week, travelling on the weekends, not getting paid a whole lot to do what they love... but also being huge inspirations to young girls playing hockey, meeting fans that they've helped by speaking out on issues women in sports face, etc)
> 
>   
> there's a longer version of this where there is actual hockey, but alas i could not finish it in time. endless thanks and love to frecklebombfic and girlmarauders for yelling about this with me. thanks to them and lotts for looking this over and lotts for the absolutely genius karaoke duet suggestion. 

It’s karaoke night at Denver’s best and only lesbian bar when they all pile in after their big win over the Beauts, and Tyson lights up. 

“Dude, yes,” she says, grinning at Landy, who’d been the one to insist on the team coming out here. 

“Dude, no,” groans Tyson Senior, bright red already. “Any Celine Dion jokes and I’m out of here, I’m not even kidding.”

“I think it’s sweet,” Colin says, like, painfully earnest, which only makes Tyson Senior go redder. 

“It’s a beautiful song, right?” she says, grinning at Colin for just a moment. Then she looks around at their table, eyes narrowed. “If any of you assholes put me down to sing it, Nate _will_ murder you and make it look like an accident.”

Beside her, Nate’s eyebrows go up. “Will she, now,” she says, and Tyson Senior leans back against her, tipping her head back to beam up at Nate. 

“Of course,” she says, “she’s the best girlfriend and she loves me forever and ever, right?”

Nate visibly melts. “Unfortunately,” she says, smiling back, and a chorus of groans go up around the table about how sickening and gross they are, which only get louder when Senior pushes up to meet Nate’s mouth, giving them all the finger without looking at them. 

Tyson joins in, even though Nate and Senior’s relationship is, like, goals. Not that Tyson really wants that, or feels like she’s missing out. Hooking up is fun and easy and thinking about being tied down to another person kind of makes her want to hyperventilate a little, but sometimes she just thinks it’d be nice, to have something like what they have. Something like the easy way they are together, like they never have to think about it; something like the smile on Nate’s face when Senior isn’t looking at her. 

Tyson looks over at JT, nudging her knee with her own. JT nudges back, but doesn’t turn from where she’s talking to Kerfy. 

“Hey,” Tyson says. “Hey. Hey.”

“You want something, Josty?” JT says, and she’s still facing forward but Tyson can hear the grin in her voice, can see the way the corner of her mouth’s pulled up to meet her eyes. 

“Let me out,” Tyson says, and she’s not whining, okay, but she’s gonna get there soon if JT doesn’t move her ass. “I need to get past, come on.” JT doesn’t move, and Tyson huffs. “Do not get between me and karaoke, Compher, you will not win.”

JT turns, the full force of her grin coming right along with her, and Tyson has to blink a few times, but she’s not so easily deterred. 

“Fine,” she says, and puts both hands on JT’s shoulders to steady herself as she shimmies across JT’s lap. Across the table, she hears Kerfy burst out laughing, but JT’s completely silent; Tyson must’ve caught her off guard. She grins. She loves winning. 

It takes her a minute to figure out what she wants to sing. There are just too many good options, and every page of the songbook she turns, she finds even _more_. She’s flicking back through, trying to narrow it down to at most three, when Colin comes up beside her. 

“Nice,” Tyson grins, leaning over to see what Colin’s writing down. Her eyebrows go up. “ _Don’t Go Breaking My Heart_ with TBear, eh?”

Colin grins back, a little red. “Don’t tell her,” she says. “I want it to be a surprise.”

Tyson’s eyebrows go up even higher. “Sure,” she says, absolutely delighted, and quickly picks a random Justin Bieber song so she can hurry back to the table. 

Everyone’s moved around in the time Tyson was gone, and a space has opened up next to Senior that she slides into, waggling her eyebrows at her. “So you and Colin, eh?”

Nate bursts out laughing. Tyson Senior groans. 

“There is no me and Colin,” she starts. 

“Yet,” Nate says wisely, “because you’re too chickenshit to do anything about how much you like her.”

“Keep your voice down,” Tyson Senior hisses, even though Colin’s dancing with Barbs, like, a hundred feet away and definitely can’t hear them. Tyson made sure of that before she said anything; she’s not an asshole. 

Gabe leans over, grinning. “Are we talking about Four’s giant crush on Colin?”

Tyson Senior sighs, very heavily. “I guess we are now,” she mutters. “Does everyone know about this? Do you talk about it amongst yourselves? Is my love life, like, entertainment for you?”

“It wouldn’t be if you weren’t such a disaster at it,” Gabe says, and Nate says, “ _Hey_ ,” and Gabe grins. 

“You’re the exception that makes the rule,” she tells Nate, who seems only a little mollified. Senior, for her part, makes a _you’re right but I don’t like it_ kind of gesture which heavily involves her shoulders and eyebrows. “Look, Tys-” 

“Oh, great,” Senior mutters, “it’s time for _Gabe’s opinion_.”

Gabe ignores her. “This stuff isn’t hard. You’re basically already dating. You’re always making her dinner or going to your hipster concerts-”

“That’s not dating,” Senior objects, “that’s just doing things together! You have to say that you’re dating to be dating.”

“Then say that you’re dating,” Gabe says. “Talk to her. For fuck’s sake, Tys, all you do is talk. Use all those words of yours and tell her how you feel.”

“Easy for you to say, Miss Emotionally Adjusted,” Senior gripes, “what if she doesn’t like me back?”

Nate snorts, then coughs very unconvincingly. “Sure,” she says, “that’s a thing that could be true.”

Senior scowls at her. “You’re biased,” she tells her, “you think everyone’s secretly in love with me.”

“No,” Nate says patiently, “I just know what it looks like.”

“Biased,” Tyson repeats, but she’s bright red and smiling a little, now. “She’s just- she’s just like that, and we’re really good friends, and I don’t wanna mess anything up, and-”

“You’re making excuses,” Gabe says flatly, and Senior snaps back, “So what if I am, Landy?”

“Landy,” Nate says, a note of warning in her voice, but Gabe ignores her. 

“You always do this,” Gabe says, and, oh, shit, there’s steel there, in her eyes and in Tyson Senior’s gritted teeth. This abruptly feels like a conversation Tyson shouldn’t be part of. “You can’t let fear of rejection stop you from going after what you want.”

“Easy for you to say, Miss Body Issue-”

“Tyson,” Gabe says, firm but soft, and Senior sags, just a little. 

“I know,” she says, and she sounds, like, not sad, exactly, but there’s a note in her voice that makes Tyson’s heart clench on Senior’s behalf. It’s just for a second, and then she’s grinning again, full Tyson Barrie glory. Tyson would almost think she imagined it, if she couldn’t see how tightly Nate’s holding onto her. 

“I could try and find out for you,” Tyson says suddenly, and isn’t really sure why, except for the fact that she brought this up, that she’s the reason things got real tense for a second there, the reason that Senior just looked almost heartbroken. “Like, if Colin likes you. I have a face people tell secrets to.”

Tyson Senior blinks at her, then narrows her eyes. She opens her mouth like she’s going to say something, probably about them being meddling assholes who need to mind their own business. 

Then the DJ calls out, “Colin and Tyson to the stage, please!” and her mouth snaps shut. 

Tyson jumps out, dragging Senior along with her, shoving at her back when she digs her feet in. Colin’s already at the stage, flushed and beaming as she watches them approach, and she holds a hand out to pull Tyson Senior up. She stumbles into Colin a little, and Colin’s arm snakes down to her waist, like she’s steadying her, but she doesn’t take it away. 

Tyson’s up next, and she’s pretty caught up in the crowd, so she goes with it, dancing to their rendition of the song. It’s so fucking sappy, they’re, like, looking into each others’ eyes and shit, all earnest like they’re singing to each other. It’s the gayest thing Tyson has seen or will see tonight, and she’s more than half expecting them to make out once the song is over, but they’re still just looking at each other, breathing hard and smiling. And then Colin turns around to leave the stage, and for a moment Senior’s entire face just... falls, and Tyson’s heart does that clenching thing again. 

She pushes it aside, because she’s got some Bieber to butcher, but when she comes off the stage, she makes a beeline for the bar where Senior’s staring moodily into a sangria. She doesn’t even say anything when Tyson swipes her glass to take a sip, and, shit, Tyson didn’t think she had it this bad. 

“You’re right about your face,” Senior says, before Tyson can voice this concern, and, huh? “Maybe it’s the curls, actually, they make you look fucking angelic.” Senior squints at her. “Is that why they’re so big? They’re full of secrets?”

Tyson frowns. “Is that a reference?” she asks slowly, and Senior looks horrified for a second before she lifts her drink to her mouth and drains it in one gulp. 

“An infant,” she mutters, staring into her now empty glass. “I’m getting relationship help from an _infant_.”

“I’m not that much younger than you,” Tyson says, and then Senior’s words actually sink in and she grins. “Wait, you want my help?”

“Against my better judgement,” Senior says, “I am considering it. On the one hand, infant. One the other hand, not having to talk about my feelings to find out if the subject of my feelings returns my feelings. Does _feelings_ still sound like a word to you?” She sighs. “Whatever. They’re the worst.”

“I mean, yeah,” Tyson says, because she doesn’t disagree, but. She’s not sure what her _but_ is, actually, and before she can think of something, Senior groans and lays her head down. Tyson pats her on the back kind of awkwardly. 

“She’s just so nice,” she tells the counter, “and hot, and sweet, and if she makes me another mixtape I might actually die.”

“She makes you mixtapes?”

“On actual cassette tapes,” Senior says mournfully. “Which probably means nothing to you since you’re a literal child.”

“I know what a cassette tape is,” Tyson says, rolling her eyes. She’s seen them at Goodwill and shit. “TBear. Bro. That’s gay as shit. Why haven’t you banged yet?”

Senior lifts her head with a long, drawn-out sigh. “I don’t just wanna bang,” she says, like this should be obvious. “I wanna bang with _feelings_.”

“Like,” Tyson says, frowning a little, “like you and Nate?”

“Like girlfriends,” Senior says dreamily, and, huh, okay. That makes sense, Tyson guesses. 

“Do you guys do that?”

Senior shrugs. “Not a lot,” she says. “But Nate has Jo, so, like, there’s precedent.”

Tyson’s eyes widen. “Jo like Jonathan Drouin? I thought they were just really good friends.”

“They are really good friends,” Senior drawls, “really, _really_ good friends. They’ve known each other forever, it’s kind of sickeningly sweet, actually.”

“Huh,” Tyson says. She’s having to process a lot tonight. She shakes her head a little, then grins. “Can’t be worse than you and Nate. Or you and Colin.”

Senior was starting to look cheerful, but she droops immediately. “Hilarious,” she mutters. “Thanks, Josty.”

“I’m serious,” Tyson says. “You literally just had a karaoke moment, bro. That’s some rom-com shit right there.”

Senior sighs very heavily. “Life,” she says, “isn’t a movie.”

“Is that supposed to sound wise? You aren’t very good at this mentoring thing.”

“That’s why EJ looks after the rookies, and I’m the cautionary tale,” Senior says, something flinty in her smile. “Can I get another sangria?” she says suddenly, leaning forward to flash a smile at the bartender. “Actually, can I get two? Am I allowed to get two?”

The bartender laughs, and Senior winks at her. Tyson’s been out with her enough to recognise that wink, so she gets up, saying, “I’ll leave you to it,” because she’s a good bro like that. 

She figures she’ll head back to the table, see who’s still hanging around, but she bumps into Colin as she makes her way through the crowd, and that’s just, like, fortuitous. She stumbles maybe a little more than is natural, and Colin grabs her shoulders, steadying her. 

“Hey, thanks,” Tyson says, smiling up at her through her eyelashes. It’s a move, sure, but she doesn’t do it on purpose. Or, well, she does, but Colin is glowing under the lights and still holding onto her, and she smiles back at Tyson, her face a little pink. “Wanna dance?”

“Sure,” Colin says, and Tyson puts her own hands on Colin’s waist. She’s so warm, firm under Tyson’s grip, and looking at Tyson with a mixture of shyness and delight, and Tyson definitely loses focus for a minute or two or ten. She’s not a great dancer, and neither’s Colin, but she knows how to move her body to a rhythm and Colin follows her, keeping close, close enough that Tyson can see the beads of sweat on her face. She wants to lick them away, which is a really unhelpful thought that she does her best to shake out of her head. It doesn’t really work, but it does remind her of the mission objective. 

“You were great on stage earlier,” she says, and Colin grins. 

“Thanks,” she says. “It was mostly Tys, though. She’s a natural performer.”

“You were really good together,” Tyson says, and Colin ducks her head. 

“Yeah,” she says, with this soft smile, and Tyson’s not an expert on this whole feelings thing, but she’s pretty sure that’s not nothing. 

She’s trying to figure out how to ask Colin about it in a way that’s at least, like, slightly subtle when Colin pulls her a little closer and every sensible thought goes right out of Tyson’s head. God, Colin is so hot, and Tyson is only one lesbian. 

“You wanna get out of here?” she blurts, and Colin smiles wide and nods. 

They get, like, an actual cab to Tyson’s, because Tyson gets out her phone and asks if Colin wants to split an Uber and Colin very earnestly explains that she doesn’t use ride-sharing apps, “Because of their exploitative business model,” and Tyson isn’t really sure what that means, but it’s pretty hot that Colin, like, cares about shit like that. Tyson really, really wants to kiss her, but she doesn’t wanna do it in the back of a cab with a random stranger there, but she also really _really_ wants to kiss Colin. 

She’s kind of vibrating with it, and Colin puts a hand on Tyson’s knee, squeezing. Tyson looks up at her, and she smiles, and Tyson smiles back. 

Tyson’s not great at waiting, but it’s totally worth it. Colin’s mouth is soft and sweet as she presses Tyson into the mattress, miles of smooth, naked skin against hers. Tyson doesn’t know where to put her hands, because she wants to touch Colin everywhere; every slide of their bodies makes heat lance through her. 

Colin pulls back a little, and Tyson makes a mostly involuntary noise of protest which makes Colin giggle and kiss her mouth again, then her cheek, then her jaw, then down to her neck. 

“You can bite,” Tyson says, a little breathier than she means to be, “I like it, please, bite me.” Colin just grazes the skin and Tyson makes another noise, which turns into a moan when Colin sinks her teeth in. “Fuck, like that, yeah.”

Colin shifts, bracketing Tyson’s hips with her knees and squeezing, and Tyson blurts, “You should sit on my face.”

That makes Colin giggle, too, but when she says, “Yeah?” it’s low and a little scratchy and, yeah, _yes_ , yeah. She gets her hands on Colin’s ass, _god_ , her ass, and keeps them there as Colin moves up the bed, rubbing circles into the skin. 

“You sure?” Colin says when she’s situated, and it’s really sweet and all that she’s checking in, but she’s right there above Tyson, dripping a little onto Tyson’s face, and Tyson’s mouth is watering. 

“Fuck yeah,” Tyson says, and drags Colin down. 

Fuck, but she loves this, taking someone apart with her lips and tongue, and Colin is loud, keening when Tyson does something she particularly likes. She starts off pretty still, like she’s trying to be polite, but Tyson squeezes her ass encouragingly, using her grip on Colin to push Colin forward until Colin’s riding her face, moving just the way she likes, the way she needs. 

She makes just the most incredible noise when she comes, somewhere between a groan and a cry, her entire body shaking. She takes, like, a second to pant and curse and then suddenly she’s flat against Tyson again, kissing her like she never wants to stop. Tyson would be more than okay with that, but she also needs to come, like, right now or she’s going to die. 

She starts to wriggle a hand between their bodies, but Colin catches her wrist, pulls back slightly to look into Tyson’s eyes, deep and serious. “Can I?” she murmurs, and Tyson nods frantically, letting out a long, drawn-out groan when Colin touches her, her head tipping forward to rest against Colin’s shoulder. She shudders through her orgasm, clenching hard on Colin’s fingers, and Colin doesn’t stop, keeps rubbing over Tyson’s clit until she whines and comes again, her entire body trembling. 

“Fuck,” she gasps, almost a laugh, and then Colin giggles and Tyson is laughing, bubbling over with how _good_ she feels. “That was pretty fucking great, Willy.”

“I thought so too,” Colin says, and Tyson has to kiss her smiling mouth, rest their foreheads together, wrap her arms around Colin’s waist and squeeze. 

Colin shifts so she’s lying on the bed instead of Tyson, and Tyson’s kinda disappointed until Colin turns her gently and presses up against her back, her hand stroking over Tyson’s belly. “This all right?” she asks quietly, and Tyson covers Colin’s hand with her own and nods. 

“You can stay if you want.”

“Are you just saying that to be polite, or,” Colin says, like she’s actually concerned, and Tyson tucks her smile into her chest. 

“Stay,” she says. She feels a hand scrunch through her hair, the brush of lips on the nape of her neck, and settles back against Colin, her eyes closing. 

*

Tyson wakes to an empty bed, which kinda sucks because morning sex is fucking amazing, but there’s a suspiciously good smell coming from downstairs and no one who lives in this house can cook. She pulls on boxers and a tank and goes downstairs to investigate. 

“Are you making me pancakes?” Tyson says, delighted, and Colin looks up from the frying pan and grins.

“Good morning,” she says, and Tyson has to go over to the stovetop and kiss her, because they had great sex and now Colin’s cooking actual breakfast in her actual kitchen, and Tyson thinks she’s allowed to feel kinda giddy. She meant it to be brief, a kind of _I’m really glad you’re here_ , but she gets a bit lost in it, until Colin breaks the kiss and puts a hand on Tyson’s chest. 

“The pancakes are gonna burn,” Colin says gently, but she looks as delighted as Tyson feels. 

Tyson pulling herself up to sit on a counter and watch, legs kicking absently against the cabinets. When Colin’s done, she steps between Tyson’s legs and feeds a pancake to her, and Tyson could get used to this, fuck. If this is what Tyson Senior is dealing with, she completely understands. 

“These are so good,” Tyson tells her, licking at Colin’s finger as she takes it back from Tyson’s mouth, and Colin goes pink. 

“There was going to be fruit, but you don’t have, like, anything with a vitamin in it.” 

“I’m literally going grocery shopping today,” Tyson says, which could definitely be true, there’s no reason for Colin to look so dubious. Dubious looks good on Colin - Tyson thinks most things would - but Tyson leans down to kiss it off her, anyway. 

Her phone vibrates before she can get too lost in this warm, floaty feeling. It’s a text from Senior that just says _MISSION UPDATE??_ Tyson sends back a string of emojis, including the two girls in love and the pancake stack. 

_valuable work junior cannot thank you enough_ , she gets back, and whoever said you can’t convey tone with just text clearly had never met Tyson Barrie. 

They’ve basically finished the pancakes when the kitchen door opens and Kerf comes in. She does a weird kind of doubletake when she sees Tyson and Colin. 

“Oh, hi,” she says, and gives Tyson a significant look which Tyson absolutely cannot read. She loves Kerf but Kerf is a stone cold weirdo who’s putting herself through the horror of grad school because she just really loves econ. There are some things about her Tyson will never understand, and this look is one of them. 

“‘Sup,” Tyson says. 

“Hey,” Colin says, friendly as ever, and presses a kiss to Tyson’s cheek before she steps away. “I should be heading out,” she says to Tyson, apologetic. “I need to go home before work, and you’ve got class, right?”

Tyson shrugs, winding her legs back around Colin’s waist. “I can skip class,” she says, grinning, and Colin frowns. She puts her hands on Tyson’s thigh like she’s going to push herself away, but she doesn’t move. 

“You really shouldn’t,” she says, “education’s important.”

“Okay, mom,” Tyson says, rolling her eyes, which makes Colin blush. 

“I’m serious,” she protests. “Woman cannot live on hockey alone, Josty. You’ve gotta have something else.”

“Fine,” Tyson grumbles, because she knows Colin’s right, even if she’s in Too Serious Mentor mode right now. She lets her legs fall from around Colin’s waist, then gives Colin a fistbump, which Colin giggles at as she returns it, and then the door’s opening again. 

“Oh, hi,” JT says, but in a totally different way than Kerf had. 

“Hi,” Colin says, grinning, “bye,” and waves at them all as she heads out. 

Kerf gives Tyson another significant look. Tyson frowns. “Seriously, what,” she says. 

Kerf looks at JT, who isn’t looking at either of them, seemingly very busy with the coffee machine. She sighs. “Why do I bother,” she says, then turns on her heel and leaves, without even grabbing any food. 

Seriously. Stone cold weirdo. Tyson loves her so much. 

“What’s happening right now,” she asks JT, and JT shrugs, still not quite meeting her eyes. 

“Kerf’s just like that,” she says, which is true. “Want a ride to class?”

“Aw, bro, that’d be awesome,” Tyson says, grinning at her. “You’re the best, I love you.”

JT smiles behind her coffee cup. “I know.”


End file.
